CNSC’s Management Response to the Treasury Board Secretariat MAF Assessment – Round VII

The Management Accountability Framework (MAF) sets out the Treasury Board Secretariat’s management expectations for managers in Canada’s Public Service. The Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer (OCHRO) use the MAF as an assessment tool to measure the management performance of government organizations.  Conducted annually for large departments, and once every three years for small agencies, these assessments rate the management practices within an organization from “Strong” to “Attention Required” and help identify priority areas.

The results of the MAF assessment represents the agency’s performance against a specific set of indicators as of March 31, 2010; they do not reflect the efforts made in strengthening management performance since then.

In the fall of 2009, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) underwent its second MAF assessment and made improvements in nearly all areas.  For the 13 areas of management against which the CNSC was assessed, it received three “Strong” ratings, nine “Acceptable” ratings, and one “Opportunity for improvement” rating.  It should be noted that CNSC has doubled its “Acceptable” ratings compared to the last assessment in 2006-2007 (Round IV) and has reduced its “Opportunity for improvement” ratings from six to one.

The CNSC was commended for its work in moving from “Opportunity for Improvement” to “Acceptable” in a number of management areas, including:

• Effectiveness of Corporate Management Structure:  In order to better integrate planning activities, CNSC launched a new planning framework in 2008.  The framework integrates all CNSC planning and reporting activities, aligning annual work plans with corporate and government priorities and setting key dates for senior management review.
• Quality of Performance Reporting:  The organization’s reports to Parliament demonstrate clearly communicated performance expectations in the RPP that are tracked and reported on in the Departmental Performance Report (DPR).

Further, the CNSC has also improved its rating for two of the three priorities identified in Round IV:

• Effectiveness of Corporate Risk Management:  CNSC developed an Enterprise Risk profile in 2007, which has been tailored over time, and articulated senior executive ownership of individual risks, accountability for their mitigation, and includes provisions for monitoring progress. 
• Effectiveness of Internal Audit function:  CNSC has an external Departmental Audit Committee, meets the expectations set out in the Treasury Board Policy on Internal Audit and is demonstrating progress and improved performance aligned with policy requirements.

The area of management that was identified as a priority in Round IV that the Treasury Board Secretariat has identified as a continuing priority going forward is:

• Quality and Use of Evaluation:  With the introduction of the new TB Policy on Evaluation in April 2009, CNSC began a process to re-examine its approach to program evaluation, with a view to enhancing its capacity to respond to existing evaluation requirements, and to ensuring that it is also in a position to meet the requirements of the new Policy.  While the organization is taking steps towards development of a robust evaluation capacity, it is also encouraged to focus management attention in this area.

Since the assessment, the CNSC has put in place corrective measures to address deficiencies and finalized its action plan which can be located on CNSC’s external Web site.  While the CNSC received only one rating of “Opportunity for Improvement” in AoM 6 Quality and Use of Evaluation, the organization has addressed and responded to other areas where opportunities were identified in the lines of evidence section.  The CNSC will continue working with TBS in the next three years in order to respond to opportunities identified in Round VII and will make available detailed progress reports on its external Web site.